1. Spro   851 W 36th St, 410-243-1262; sprocoffee.com

“There’s a great little coffee shop up on 36th, and I forget how it started,  but I can order a ‘spikiatto’ there. The spikiatto is a single shot espresso and  a single macchiato. I love a macchiato and he was burning the shot every time I  got one. It’s nice to taste the pure espresso and then have the macchiato. I  never got him to put it on his menu, but I’ve gotta work on that.”

Photo: via flickr

2. Grand Cru   527 E Belvedere Ave, (410) 464-1944

“A good friend of mine owns a wine bar that’s in Belvedere Market but not  part of the big space. It’s a great place to sit down and have a drink. He does  great small plates, cool cheeses, cool local charcuterie. We send him a couple  things from time to time from the butchery work we do in the back.”

Photo: Courtesy of Grand Cru

3. Belvedere Market   529 Belvedere Ave, 410-464-9773; belvederesquare.com

“Belvedere Square is a cool spot that recreates the history of public  markets—it’s sort of the private version. We usually shop at larger farmers’  markets for the restaurant, but Belvedere is a great place to shop for home.  It’s got really great vendors. It’s a mixture of stuff you can take with you and  stuff you can just pull up a stool at a counter and eat. I really love the guy  that does soup there, Ned Atwater. He’s one of the other chefs in Baltimore that  I think is pretty sincere and committed to local sourcing.”

Photo: Courtesy of Belvedere Market

4. Patisserie Poupon   820 E Baltimore St, 410-332-0390; patisseriepoupon.net

“Joseph’s been there since just about forever. I had just graduated from  college and was back in Baltimore for reasons I’m still not really clear about,  and Patisserie Poupon had just opened. I poked my head in and came back the next  day with a resume that I had totally fabricated and exaggerated, and that became  my first real cooking job. I think I was their first hire. It was just Eph and  his wife running everything before that. If he was anywhere else, well…he’s a  superstar. But he’s in Baltimore. Some pastry shops are kind of frozen in time,  but that’s not the way he operates. Nobody does the classics better, but he’s  always got something new, too. He is so good at what he  does.”